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Cleanup subcontract for Hanford’s K Area awarded

07.09.2009

RICHLAND, Wash.—Washington Closure Hanford has awarded a subcontract to clean up the 118-K-1 Burial Ground at Hanford’s K Area to Dance Designs Inc., a small, Native American, woman-owned business based in Pocatello, Idaho, and with offices in Richland.

The subcontract is worth up to $9 million over the next two years. Dance Designs will start work at the site in July and will complete excavation in the fall of 2010. Washington Closure expects cleanup work, including backfill and revegetation, to be completed by spring 2012. Watts Construction Inc. of Kennewick and Babcock Services Inc. of Richland are major subcontractors to Dance Designs.

The 118-K-1 Burial Ground was used 1955-1973 to dispose of radioactive reactor hardware and components, incinerator ash, protective clothing, boron balls and other wastes. The material was deposited in trenches and silos.

The 8-acre site, which is smaller than burial grounds at other reactor sites, contains 16 unlined trenches and 11 silos. The silos were made out of corrugated steel pipe and ranged from four to ten feet in diameter and up to 32 feet deep. Three types of silos of varying sizes were used to dispose of highly radioactive debris.

This is the second time workers have mobilized to clean up the 118-K-1 Burial Ground. In 2006, workers began excavating contaminated soil and had removed about 130,000 tons by the time work shifted to higher priority sites in 2008.

In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Energy funded North Wind Inc. of Idaho Falls, Idaho, to field-test a process for characterizing the contents of the silos. The data revealed that there were some radioactive hot spots within the silos. The data will be quite useful in the current cleanup effort, according to Washington Closure project manager for the work, Dale Obenauer.

Scant disposal records at Hanford mean workers have to proceed cautiously and carefully. “Experience at other sites has taught us to be prepared for anything,” said Obenauer. “The additional data allow us to be better prepared to do the job safely,” he said.

As material is excavated, it will be sorted and screened for anomalies and spent nuclear fuel. Any material requiring identification or special handling will be set aside for further characterization. Most of the material will be transported to Hanford’s onsite facility for cleanup wastes, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.

The 118-K-1 Burial Ground was the primary disposal site for waste from the K East and K West reactors, located in the northern part of the 586-square-mile Hanford Site. The reactors operated 1954-1971.

Washington Closure manages the $2.2 billion River Corridor Closure Project for DOE’s Richland Operations Office. The company is responsible for cleaning up 370 waste sites, demolishing 486 buildings, placing three reactor facilities in interim safe storage and managing the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.